Rewards transiently and automatically enhance sustained attention

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Sustained attention is crucial for daily functioning but naturally fluctuates.
• Performance-based rewards can mitigate attentional lapses, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
• Previous research has not distinguished between task-specific motivation and general arousal effects of rewards.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how reward feedback influences attentional vigilance during a combined sustained attention and reinforcement learning (RL) task.
• To differentiate the effects of reward and surprise components of RL on short-term attention fluctuations.
• To determine if attention-independent rewards can impact vigilance.

Main Methods:

• Conducted three experiments with a total of 296 participants (N=161, N=135).
• Utilized a simultaneous sustained attention and reinforcement learning (RL) task.
• Administered attention-independent rewards and assessed their impact on vigilance and surprise effects.

Main Results:

• Intermittent, attention-independent rewards transiently enhanced vigilance on a second-by-second timescale.
• No consistent evidence was found for surprise modulating attentional vigilance.
• Passively received rewards also induced transient improvements in sustained attention.

Conclusions:

• Rewards, independent of task performance, can transiently improve sustained attention and buffer against attentional lapses.
• These effects are likely mediated by general increases in arousal or motivation.
• A fundamental link exists between reward processing and sustained attention.